Poached Pears with White Chocolate Poppy Seed Cream

I can't believe it's been so long since I posted. Shame on me! I have tons of food pics & tidbits to share, but not tonight! Here's a recent one though. This is supposed to be a German recipe. I have not verified that, but here it is:

Spicy Poached Pears
White Chocolate Poppy Seed Cream
Red Wine Reduction

Chèvre Kolache with Brandied Apricots

The latest recipe experiment. Chèvre Kolache with Brandied Apricots, garnished with Flaxseed Pocipke.

 I now pronounce them good and GONE!

I will post the details on these yummy pastries later. 

Chèvre Kolache

On the Rise

A Bunch to Munch

Blueberry Hemp Cake-Part I

This experiment is part 1 of "The Blueberry Cake Series." The cake in part one is dense...more like a pound cake in texture. The batter contained blueberry preserves, about a cup of frozen blueberries and hemp seeds. The icing was made with cream cheese, chopped dried blueberries and toasted hemp seeds. It was good, not too sweet (even though the preserves were insanely sweet). It got good reviews from the "taste testers." ;)

The next test will be as soon as possible. Since it's "busy time" in the garden, I'm not sure of an exact date but here are a couple of ideas I've been tossing around:

1.  A blueberry torte...with a sponge made of dried blueberries and hemp seeds...filled with blueberry mousse. (And maybe a cream cheese mousse...I'm not sure yet.
2. A blueberry angel food cake
3. A chiffon cake with blueberries

We shall see. It's always an adventure in Dr. Frazier-stein's kitchen laboratory. Ha! :)

Blueberry Hemp Cake

Blueberry Hemp Cake-An Inside Look

Al Parfait

Here is "Al Parfait," so named because the base is part of the remainder of Al's birthday cake, which was homemade angel food cake. It's easy and fun to throw things like this together when you have guests for dinner and you want to make a dessert for them that isn't too heavy.

No fresh fruit was available for garnish so I used...what else? Sprinkles!!!! Yes, they aren't good for you and all of that, but you should always keep some in the kitchen to cheer you up.

Al Parfait

Blueberry Cookies

Blueberry Cookies

Blueberry Frosting

Garnished with Dried Blueberries

Need I say more? 

Dr. Frazier-stein's experiment was a success! It's alive...........ALIVE!! <<<(Pop-culture reference for horror movie fans.)

Click HERE for this yummy recipe! 

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Blueberry Cookies

Peaches 'n' Cream Pie

I love it in the laboratory and this pie was cobbled together on the fly with leftover dough and leftover pastry cream. I guess it should have been a cobbler instead, ha ha ha!

I didn't have quite enough dough to make a fancy, fluted crust for the edges so I studded the crust with some ground pecans. It didn't need a long baking time so the pecans were perfectly safe without one of those crust protectors.

The peaches were organic frozen peaches poached in organic peach preserves + their own juices. No other sugar was needed. Trust me on this! This particlar jar of peach preserves is very lovely but the preserves are so sweet they knock you right on your butt! We've been searching for alternative uses for these insanely sweet preserves besides using them for glazing fruit. I even added some to the leftover pastry cream (mixing well).

So I guess this is a "Frankenstein" pie...but we'll call it a "Frazier-stein" pie. Because...well, why not? Making things fun in the kitchen always brings great results! I know that there are people who are nervous in the kitchen and afraid of messing up but you just have to relax and have fun. Get in "THE ZONE." That's when you'll kick some serious butt! :)

Peaches-n-Cream Pie

Nan and Her Czech Plum Dumplings

My Czech grandmother (we all called her Nan), used to make plum dumplings. She called them "Siskas," which she pronounced as "Sheesh-kaz." I haven't been able to find this name and this recipe together on the internet. Czech websites call them, "'Svestkove Knedliky." Is her word how you pronounce, "Svestkove?" I don't know. 


I do know that she often had nicknames for things, (which reminds me a lot of me), but her nicknames were in Czech, lol. 


My Mom and I have been dying to make some plum dumplings. We remember Nan's recipe. I also did a search on the internet to see if I could find similarities to her recipe. Most of the Czech recipes call for bread crumbs (to be fried in butter before the cooked dumplings are added).

Nan never used bread crumbs when she made her recipe. She would either use cinnamon, sugar and butter or the same combination with a little cottage cheese thrown in. Then you tossed the cooked dumplings in the mixture. 


This recipe is really, really, really good. As soon as we find some proper plums, it is a definite, "Go!" I'm not sure if we'll be able to find them locally. The plums Nan used were a smaller variety. They used to carry them at the local grocery store because there were so many Czech and German families in the area. Now, not so much. So it may take some footwork to find the right dumplings. Regular plums can be used, but you have to cut them up, rather than using the whole plum. 


You never knew what you might walk into when you walked into Nan's kitchen, but whether it was fresh kolache, streudel, or plum dumplings, it was always a nice surprise! 

If you've ever experienced this fabulous plum dumplings recipe, please drop me a line. 


As always, Happy Eating! :)